Only One Candidate Deemed a “Good Person”: Guess Who?

Here’s a simple truth about American politics: you can’t win an election if people don’t like you. That’s why pollsters ask endless versions of the classic question, “which candidate would you most like to get a beer with” to quantify likability. But likability might not be the best stand-in for the more fundamental question: “is this candidate a good person?”

So, researchers at Unanimous AI asked a group of voters that very question for 4 major candidates: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Unlike a survey, the respondents had to work together to answer the questions, converging on common ground. The process is called “swarming” and it looks like this:

As you can see, Senator Cruz does not do very well in this simple test. Would Donald Trump fare any better?

Nope. In fact, of the four major candidates we asked the Swarm to consider, only 1 passed the test. Was it Hillary Clinton? Keep in mind that the former Secretary of State has won enough awards to fill an entire Wikipedia page.

What does that mean for Hillary? It’s too early in our research to tell, but this much is clear. Despite a lifetime of service, Clinton still has a long way to go in order to win the public’s trust. So, which candidate earned a stamp of approval?

Feel the Bern…

That’s right. The junior Senator from Vermont was the only candidate deemed a good person. When you couple that result with his climbing poll numbers and momentum heading into the primaries, it might be time to ask one final question:

The election is still a long way away. But, if these results are any indication, it’s very significant that voters think Bernie Sanders is a good person. In fact, it might just be the most important question they ask themselves when they head into the polls.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a luncheon at the National Press Club on Monday, March 9, 2015 in Washington. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is considering running for the 2016 Democratic nomination as a liberal alternative to Hillary Clinton, focusing on income inequality and climate change. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)